Lewis Wickes Hine (September 26, 1874 – November 3, 1940) was an Oshkosh-raised documentary photographer who famously captured images of immigrant life and child labor in the early 20th century. Hine’s photography for the National Child Labor Committee is recognized as influencing laws that limit the work people under age 18 can do. Hine attended Oshkosh Normal School for one quarter in 1899.

Early Life

Lewis Hine was born September 26, 1874, in Oshkosh to Douglas and Sarah Hine, both from Cairo, New York. Douglas was an American Civil War veteran for the 20th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment. Sarah had taught English and Spanish to children of U.S. diplomats when the couple lived in Costa Rica for a brief period in the mid-1860s. Lewis was raised above Hines’ Coffeehouse and Restaurant, the Main Street business his parents began operating after moving to Oshkosh from Ohio in 1871. He attended Oshkosh Grammar School and then Oshkosh High School until the early 1890s. He enjoyed reading poetry and drawing. Douglas, who was battling illness by 1890, closed the coffee shop and moved his family to 80 Division St. Douglas died just two years later from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, believed to be accidental, while working at the Iron Works shop.

Working in Oshkosh

 To support the family, Lewis dropped out of high school and spent six to seven years between odd jobs and bouts of unemployment. During the time Lewis was a factory worker, woodcutter, salesman, deliveryman, janitor and debt collector. Sometime during the late 1890s he also started dating Sara Rich, an 1897 Oshkosh Normal School Graduate. Lewis was working his way up at National Union Bank, but he didn’t find bank work appealing. He took sculpting, drawing and stenography classes on the side. When Lewis was 23, the 1898 Oshkosh Woodworkers’ Strike took place. He started to take notice to the challenges laborers faced.

Oshkosh Normal School

 In 1899, Lewis met Frank Manny, Oshkosh Normal School’s new head of experimental education, psychology and education. Manny’s background was in coordinating education for laborers, so he knew how to help Lewis pursue education. Lewis quit the bank and enrolled at Oshkosh Normal School, where Manny gave him part-time work as a clerk and a secretary.

Lewis attended Oshkosh Normal School for the last quarter of the 1898-1899 school year. He received marks for geology, psychology, education as a science, school code, art of teaching, perspective drawing, history of education, physical and professional geography, and beginning and professional drawing classes.

After ONS

 Manny was impressed with Lewis’s work and convinced him to transfer to the University of Chicago to continue studying education. Meanwhile, Manny left Oshkosh Normal School for a superintendent job at the Ethical Culture School in New York City. In 1901, Manny hired Lewis on as an elementary science teacher at the Ethical Culture School, and Lewis finished his education on the side in New York. He returned to Oshkosh to marry Rich in August 1904.

In fall 1904, Manny wanted the Ethical Culture School visually documented, so he convinced Lewis to become the school photographer. Lewis started a photography program at the school. Manny introduced Lewis and his students to photographing immigrants arriving to Ellis Island so the students would develop an appreciation for the people, thus beginning Lewis’s career in photographing American immigration and labor.

Lewis quit his teaching job in 1908 and spent the next decade working for the National Child Labor Committee photographing children in factories, mills and fields. He also photographed the American Red Cross in Europe during World War I, American blue-collar workers throughout the 1920s and the construction of the Empire State Building in 1930. By the mid-1930s he struggled to find work and lived in poverty. Sara died of pneumonia on December 25, 1939. Lewis died 10 months later after an operation on November 3, 1940.

Research provided in part by Susan Nuernberg

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